Compassion, Refugees, Rape and Magic

Last night, I somehow found myself clicking on the following David Icke video, which addresses many layers of the carefully orchestrated refugee crisis. I don’t often do much with Icke, but I really appreciated him addressing the hypocrisy of David Cameron (and others) talking about how “the solution to the refugee crisis is to bring peace to the Middle East.” The words sound nice, and most of us would probably agree with them; however, Icke highlights the actions behind the words and how collective outrage over the photo with the little boy is being propagandized to bring “peace” to the Middle East by forcing Parliament to allow the UK to join the US and Turkey in bombing Syria. Into peace. Arming “rebels,” aka ISIS, aka fundamentalist Muslims from whom the refugees are fleeing. Orwellian doublespeak to the max.

The cognitive dissonance is beyond staggering whenever I mention to “peace lovers” about Obama droning babies and wedding parties. Illegally invading Libya. Fomenting “civil war” in Syria. Blank stares and MSNBC talking points. Obama the Nobel Peace Prize winner. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. “La la la, I can’t hear you, but I got you an Obama 2012 sign for your yard.” As the world’s heart finally opens to what the Western military has been doing for decades in the Middle East, please, please, please … don’t allow this compassion to be turned into cries for even more war. Let the insanity stop, drop, and roll off stage and out of the theater for good.

Anyway, here’s David Icke with a bigger picture, many layered and nuanced take on the crisis:

After watching this video, which largely echoed my own initial thoughts and feelings but from a UK perspective, I got to wondering about Z Budapest. The reasons for that non-sequitur will soon become apparent. For those who don’t know Zsuzsanna Budapest, she’s the woman who fought for 9 years at the Supreme Court level to make tarot reading legal in the US. Yes, not so long ago, “fortune telling” was illegal, along with other restrictions on women counseling each other using traditional Women’s Wisdom — “witchcraft laws” specifically undermining women. In 1975, Z was arrested for performing a tarot reading for an undercover cop, and it took nearly a decade of appeals to change the arcane law that landed her in jail.

Z has been the driving force of Dianic Wicca and a die-hard feminist for many, many Moon’s. Subtle wallflower she is not. For decades, she has led healing women’s circles and taught groups of women the old ways of protecting themselves from patriarchal aggression, including its most cowardly and demoralizing form, rape. In her books, she proudly admits to cursing rapists with impotence and nightmares, and teaching women to cast spells leading to the rapists’ capture and prosecution. She’s one tough, controversial force of nature, and her commitment to empowering women has seemingly known no bounds.

But Z Budapest was also a refugee. From Hungary, no less. Those who’ve followed the European refugee crisis know that Hungary is currently the country most overrun by droves of migrants from the Middle East. As a gateway to Europe, Hungary has so many illegal immigrants in their train stations and on the streets that the infrastructure has no means of handling or controlling the influx. They’ve tried building a wall to deter migration, but in their efforts to curb what feels like an invasion, they’ve drawn sharp criticism from the EU. People who’ve done any real research on European countries who’ve taken in large numbers of Muslims (as opposed to the mainstream media propaganda otherwise) know that most Muslim immigrants do not assimilate. They do not welcome any of the traditions of their host countries, but rather continue to join forces with each other and have babies until strong and numerous enough to demand enforcement of Sharia Law. Here’s where it gets tragically interesting and why I felt particular curiosity about Z Budapest’s take:

Sharia Law is vehemently anti-woman. Not only does the holy book of the “religion of peace” actually demand jihad — the reason fundamentalists feel justified and even duty bound to do it — but Islam suppresses women in some of the most profoundly brutal and humiliating ways. Clitoral mutilation … child brides to old men … and more. I once tutored a Saudi Arabian woman in English, and when she learned to communicate, ohhhhhh, my Goddess, the horrors she told me in her innocent way, not even realizing the import of what she shared. Her husband quickly put an end to our friendship, because despite me trying to respect religious differences, my shock at how he treated her — and how they both believed this was God-ordained — often left me outraged. But I digress. Since welcoming Muslims, countries like Sweden and Denmark have had astronomical rapes of blond women, with nearly all the rapists of Muslim immigrant background. According to fundamentalist Islam, women not wearing burkas are considered “whores,” asking for and deserving rape.

I’ve heard many discussions of this situation on YouTube and alternative podcasts, but last year, I also had an interesting conversation with a Dutch Mennonite couple visiting the US. For those who don’t know, Dutch Mennonites pride themselves on tolerance and their commitment to peace. As a once persecuted people, Mennonites, but particularly Dutch Mennonites feel great compassion for the underdog, and they strongly value religious freedom. Amsterdam welcomed Jews during WW2, and when a law passed forcing Jews to wear stars to identify themselves, most of the non-Jews also put on stars, thereby voiding any stigma.

Similarly, when Middle Eastern refugees needed somewhere to go, the Dutch welcomed them, so I listened with great interest when this extremely tolerant, loving couple explained how their blond daughter can no longer walk in her neighborhood due to Muslim harassment — that she needed to get a large dog in order to fend off would-be attackers. That she gets treated like a second class citizen in her own country. That Muslim men not only taunt her, but have tried to overpower and rape her. That this is daily life for many women now in areas “overrun by Muslim immigrants who refuse to assimilate.”

This couple clearly felt uncomfortable sharing what could sound like intolerance, but they admitted that no one really knows how to handle this problem. That this problem has gotten so bad that they fear it cannot be undone. Scandinavian countries for whom hospitality is a cardinal virtue face even worse situations. Sweden’s rape crisis has gotten so bad that it’s now #2 in the world for rapes of blond women, second only to South Africa. Just last week, in Germany — a country officially welcoming hundreds of thousands of new Muslim immigrants — a letter went out to parents of an elementary school warning that their girls must now cover arms and legs so as not to incite Muslim men and boys “who get overwhelmed and can’t control themselves.” Right after parental outrage at the restrictions, a seven-year-old girl was raped by a refugee.

Perhaps you can see why I felt particularly curious how Z Budapest would handle this situation. I’ve not known her to shy away from controversy, but this one seems close and conflicted on many levels. As the Hungarian Revolution broke out in 1956, she became one of 65.000 refugees who escaped the chaos, eventually emigrating to the United States. She personally knows the trauma of civil war, escape, dislocation, relocation and the challenges of assimilation and rebellion in another culture. And yet, given her scathing criticisms of the monotheistic patriarchal god, she must also recognize that Islam launches Christian subjugation of women into another category altogether. As a compassionate woman, a refugee, but also a radical feminist witch, how would Z Budapest address this European refugee crisis?

I checked her twitter account and found no references, except possibly this one, poignant tweet: “You get old, and you realize there are no answers, just stories.” Her tweet links into a 2016 Goddess festival, celebrating women and their powerful connection to the Great She.

Perhaps, I, too, am old. Like Z, I don’t know how to fix this world. It would help if those “elected” officials, and yes, I do put that in quotes (they certainly weren’t elected by me) would listen to the voice of the people crying out for No. More. War. Stop bombing the life out of the cradle of civilization, stop making other countries hate us. And yes, they do, and rightfully so. How would you feel if some joystick moving video game junkie drone pilot bombed your wedding and killed your loved ones? How would you feel if NATO’s “aid” meant arming fundamentalist Muslim rebels to topple “dictators” who had formerly protected your family from jihadists insisting on the strictest interpretations of Sharia Law? How would you feel if you woke up to find your neighbor’s home now only a smoking hole in the ground?

And how do you feel now that the self appointed “elites” who enforce these actions now think it’s a wonderful, just, and good idea to welcome people who’ve been trained to hate us into our lands? What could possibly go wrong? More importantly, how — and this is a sincere question — how can we find ways to make this right? Setting women up for rape is not making it right, imo. Inviting Sharia Law into Western lands isn’t karmic justice, because it disproportionately affects women, who generally don’t support these aggressive, psychopathic wars in the first place.

I wound up my evening by clicking another tweet by Z Budapest, and this one left me smiling. Somewhere, I felt that feminine power bubble forth from the depths, not with rage, remorse or fear, but full of pure laughter and connection, uncaring whom She offends, ready to move mountains, cast spells, or befriend bees, no matter what it takes to live life and live it well. I leave you with this glorious battle cry from “The Last of the Granny Witches.” The entire post uplifts and soars, but here’s a favorite quote:

“Send out your magic. Don’t be the last of your kind. We are the daughters of the Celts and the offspring of Druids and medieval mavens and the natives of the old world craft. And yes, God knows your name. Tell your tales and bewitch history …”

I don’t know how it all ends, but I, for one, intend to thrive. I intend to send out my magic, on all levels, including sacred sound. Vibrations have power. When we sing the words of peace, when we sing our intentions, those words inspire and initiate their own actions. The Dutch have a saying, which David translates as “Above all else, do that which you cannot not do.” I love how it sounds in Dutch, but I also love the meaning. Given the state of our world, what can you not not do? What actions do you feel compelled to take? What urgency pushes you to take some kind of action whether gardening, connecting with your neighbor, political activism, creating an altar, using magical tools to make a difference, doing a Reiki Healing Attunement on an impossible situation, and/or chanting for peace … . “Above all else, do that which you cannot not do,” because — as Tolkien said — “Little by little, one travels far.

A Vedic blessing for the world:

Oṃ. sarveśāṃ svastir bhavatu;

sarveśāṃ śāntir bhavatu;

sarveśāṃ pūrṇaṃ bhavatu;

sarveśāṃ maṅgalaṃ bhavatu

“May everyone enjoy well-being;

may everyone enjoy peace;

may everyone enjoy fullness;

may everyone enjoy auspiciousness.”

Blessed Be.